An economist has given a powerful takedown on the handling of the cost of living crisis by the government during a Question Time debate condemning its “unforgivable” approach to the crisis.
Miatta Fahnbulleh, who is the chief economist at the New Economics Foundation, appeared on the panel alongside Tory MP Suella Braverman in Hackney.
Her outspoken comments come after new research showed that more than two million adults in the UK have skipped meals for a whole day over the past month because they cannot afford to eat as the crisis worsens.
Fahnbulleh accused the government of not “grasping the scale” of the problem, and failing to act to protect the most vulnerable in her powerful comment replying to the Attorney General Tory MP Suella Braverman, who had claimed the government have implemented a variety of packages to help those worst affected by the cost of living crisis.
“When you top up all the measures that the government has put in place, families on average are still £1,000 worse off. So your numbers are literally made up,” Fahnbulleh said, attacking Braverman’s figures.
She then urged the government to introduce a windfall tax and a £15billion boost to benefits to help “the families who are at the sharpest end of this crisis.”
The economist ended by saying: “When two million people in the richest country are skipping meals because they can’t afford it, the fact you’re not acting, I think, is unforgivable.”
